Special screening On Falling, Sat 5 April
Working in a large distribution centre is tough, mind-numbing and poorly paid - this is the picture director Laura Carreira paints in her film On Falling, which is set in Scotland.
In the Netherlands, too, there are several of those big block boxes from which our countless online orders are shipped. What is the situation there? On Saturday 5 April, that question will be the focus of a talk to be held after the 2.30pm screening of On Falling.
In collaboration with the FNV and film distributor Vedette
On Falling
Portuguese Aurora (Joana Santos) works in a large Scottish distribution centre of an online shop. Orders pour in all day long, handled according to a tight and efficient logarithm. She gets along reasonably well with her colleagues and housemates, all migrant workers, although all these contracts are rather superficial; they talk about the weather and TV programmes and that's about it. She befriends a compatriot with whom she travels to work every day, but the latter decides to return to Portugal. Aurora is trapped in a poorly paid job, but she has not given up hope for something better.
Not much happens in this feature debut from Portuguese Edinburgh-based director Laura Carreira. In doing so, she emphasises how monotonous and lonely the life of her main character is, a woman who in this neoliberal world is no more than an insignificant link in optimising profits. She does so with subtle humour.
